When taking classes on Best Italian Classes, I want everyone to feel at home and welcomed. Therefore, I first want to introduce myself and then tell you a little bit of background on why I choose to create this platform, specifically for advanced Italian learners.
Ciao! I am Irene and my mission os to help Italian learners to go from a good Italian to a WOW Italian.
I owe everything to my first couple of students. Without them, I would have never been inspired to create this online school for advanced learners of Italian.
I will always remember the day that one of my most fluent students, Tatiana, asked me “Irene, I need to learn how to use pronominal verbs.”
Although I panicked that day having no materials on the subject, I am forever grateful for this request because it changed my life!
The most important thing that my students taught me, was that it is incredibly difficult to find resources to enrich already advanced level Italian.
Do not get me wrong, there is an infinite amount of reading and listening content that students can find online to practice their Italian.
However, this changes drastically if you ask an advanced student to find educational or didactic content online. It’s as if there is a sad predetermined destiny for intermediate and advanced level learners to be left alone and learn these complex topics and vocabulary all by themselves!
This is the gap that I decided to fill with creating Best Italian Classes, a unique online school and community for intermediate and advanced level students of Italian.
I am not ashamed to admit that grammar is not a part of teaching that excites me. It is essential, I am not going to argue that, but I would not be as enthusiastic as I would maybe with other Italian topics. And I am a firm believer that the best teachers are the ones that are ‘bouncing off the walls’ about the topics that they teach!
I have a background in translation, having gotten my Bachelor’s degree in the translation of two languages. I was in this profession for quite awhile, but the perfectionism that comes with this chirurgical task was not my cup of tea.
My time in this field left me with that deep emotional attachment to learning new vocabulary that only learners of new languages can relate to. It’s that sort of ‘My Traesure’ - Lord of the Rings, feeling when you acquire new expressions and idioms. Ah, I know that you are smiling! When I saw that sparkle in my students’ eyes while I was teaching my first lesson on these topics, plus my background in translation, I knew that I had found my niche.
In my opinion, a must when learning aspects of a language is practice! When it comes to advanced vocabulary, the most essential thing for a learner to do is test their knowledge by using these idioms, advanced verbs, or other advanced topics in the correct context.
That is why my courses are far more than just a simple collection of advanced vocabulary. My courses include three essential elements: quizzes for memorization, access to a community for any questions, and then a test where you use the topics in context (and then receive personalized feedback from myself). This is because I believe that the best way to actually acquire new vocabulary is by practicing with a native speaker!
